USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California to 1870 > Part 32
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Miss Susan Roop arrived at Carson City from the East December 26, 1862. Governor Roop was there as a member of the legislature from this section, but as the session was to last only a few days longer, he and his daughter went to Virginia City the next day. They had not been there long before they met Old Winnemucca on the street and he was so glad to see Roop that he threw his arms around him and hugged him vigorously. Roop said to him, "I have told you that I had two boys and a little girl. This is the girl." The chief said "I thought you got um mahala." Roop told him that he must go home to Honey Lake in a few days and did not want to be bothered by the Indians. The chief said that if he would wait five days he would not see any Indians. Roop then said that he did not want the man who took him home to be molested when he came back, and the reply was that the Indians would not trouble him either. They left Carson City on the fourth of January and reached Susanville without seeing any Indians. Amos Conkey went back with the man who brought them here and they had the same good fortune. A few days afterwards the Indians killed a man in Red Rock valley. A party went in pursuit, but failed to find any of them.
One night about the middle of January the Indians stole two horses from Isaac Coulthurst's corral and shot one of his hogs with arrows. They also tried to catch C. T. Emerson's
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mules, but they broke out of the corral and got away from them. On the night of February eighth they had better luck and suc- ceeded in stealing one of them. The last of February two men who were in Willow Creek valley saw a couple of Indians and shot at them, wounding one, as they supposed. The Indians left their ponies and took to the rocks. A short time after this the Indians stole four head of cattle from Deep Hole.
This spring a permanent military post was established at Smoke Creek, thus making good the promise of General Wright the fall before, and during the summer buildings were put up for the officers and the soldiers. Troops were kept at this post for several years afterwards, and when under the command of Captain Smith (shortly after going there he was promoted to Major) did some good Indian fighting. Some time during the year Captain Hassett camped with twenty-five or thirty soldiers at the foot of the bluff above Susanville, and stayed there all winter and perhaps longer. There was about the same number of soldiers at the Soldier bridge this fall. For several years after this whenever there was an excitement about the Indians a few soldiers came into the valley and camped at one or the other of these places for a short time.
ONE OF OLD WINNEMUCCA'S ESCAPES FROM SUSANVILLE
Some time during this year, as near as can be told, Winne- mucca paid a visit to his old friends in Susanville. The Indian troubles of the previous year had left in the minds of the people of Honey Lake a feeling of ill will toward them greater than usual. He had not been in town very long before it began to look as though it was dangerous for him to stay there, and his friends thought it best to get him away as soon as possible. William H. Hall says he came to Susanville that day and soon met Cap. Hill with whom he was great friends. Cap. said he wanted him to help get a Masonic friend out of trouble. He knew he was a Mason because he had given him the Masonic sign of distress. He then said it was Winnemucca and that the citizens of the town, some of them, wanted to hang him. He wanted to keep the chief from being hurt, but wanted as few people as possible to know that he had anything to do with it. Cap. Hill surely must have thought that Winnemucca was a Mason, for he, like other men in the valley at that time, had lost relatives in an
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Indian massacre and, also like them, killed a redskin whenever there was any excuse for doing it, and sometimes just because there was a good chance to do it. Hall said he was willing to help the chief get away and they made up a plan for doing it. Hall, John Robinson, and three other young fellows rode out to the north side of town and Hill brought the Indian out there with as little fuss as possible. He started off down the old emigrant road on the north side of the river, the young men following him. In a short time he began to run his horse and they struck out after him yelling and firing their pistols. They did this in order to keep between him and any one else who might pursue him, and also to make people in town think they were trying to kill or capture him. They kept up the chase for a couple of miles, and then seeing that no one else was coming, fired a final volley and scattered. None of them said anything about it and the matter was dropped.
Telling that an Indian knew Masonic signs may sound rather fishy, but this is not the only time it has been told. Governor Roop said that Old Winnemucca gave him Masonic signs the first time he saw him. George W. Harrison of Susanville tells the following: His father, Judge W. R. Harrison, and family crossed the plains in 1858. They had reached Box Elder creek above Fort Kearney, and that afternoon the Judge, as was his custom, went on a little in advance of the train to select a camp- ing place for the night. Not far ahead was an Indian camp and as he drew near it an Indian came out to meet him. Not know- ing what might happen, several men of the train hurried on and caught up with him just as the two met. The Indian imme- diately threw his arms around the white man and some of the latter's friends, thinking that he was going to be hurt, drew their pistols. As soon as he could the Judge told them to put up their weapons, for he understood it and it was all right. The Indian was a Sioux chief called "Black Bear" who with his braves was on the warpath against the Pawnees. Judge Harrison said the chief gave a Masonic sign as soon as they met, and when he returned it the Indian threw his arms around him. The whites camped close by and that night Black Bear and his warriors came over and smoked the pipe of peace. The next morning he presented the Judge with a war club which was made by putting a stone into the end of a split stick and wrapping it
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with rawhide, and the Judge in return made him a present of his sheath knife. The chief's wife brought a lot of jerked meat to Mrs. Harrison and was given some sugar and coffee. The chief told the whites that they need not fear trouble with the Indians as long as they were in his country and that his runners would go along and keep them in sight until they came to the territory of the next chief. The war club is now in the pos- session of one of Judge Harrison's daughters who lives in Iowa.
In the early 60's a Susanville man named Frank Peed made a business trip to Fall River valley. He had not been there long before a Pit River Indian told him he had better get out of that section as soon as he could for the Hat Creek Indians were watching for a chance to kill him. Before the Indian told him this he made Peed understand that he knew something of Masonry. It is also told that when he got part way home he suddenly came upon a band of Indians. He was afraid to go up to them, and when they saw him he made a Masonic sign. They then motioned for him to come on, and when he hesitated they unstrung their bows. He went to them, and after talking a while they told him they were on a fishing trip and that he could proceed on his journey without any danger from them. Per- haps he thought they might change their minds, for when he got out of their sight he caused his beast to strike a lively gait and to keep it up until he reached Susanville.
"Fifty Years of Masonry in California" tells the following concerning the man who was master of the lodge opened under the charter brought to California by Peter Lassen. It says that Brother Woods with a small party of men were captured by the Indians on the road back to St. Louis from Santa Fe. While the Indians were making ready to burn them Woods got his arms loose and gave a Masonic sign. The chief immediately sprang to him and cut him loose and eventually they were all set free. This was just before he met Lassen.
Lafayette D. McDow crossed the plains in the early 50's and while on his journey he fell in with some Indians who evidently knew something of Masonry. It is said that the head men of the Hudson Bay Company taught the rudiments of Masonry to the chiefs of all the tribes with which they came in contact.
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
THE WINTER OF 1863-64
This winter was the driest one ever known in this valley. T. N. Long says that the road from here to Oroville was open all winter to people on horseback, and nearly all winter for teams. Mrs. A. D. Elledge says there was only one storm in Susanville this winter and that was a small one. It snowed a little, but left no snow on the ground. It rained in the spring and people put in their grain, but although it rained during the summer, there was little or no crop on dry land that had no water for irrigation. Mr. Long says that twenty-six people died in or near Susanville that winter of a sort of mountain fever. They were nearly all adults. Amzi Brown was among those who died. George Kelley was the only one who was seriously ill and recovered. The second story of the stable at the southeast corner of Lassen and Nevada streets was used as a hospital. Until this time there had been only three people buried in the cemetery at Susanville, and none of them had died a natural death. They were Perry M. Craig, Charles W. Seaman, and a man who fell on a pitchfork while working on a ranch near Susanville.
THE FIRST DEATH AT MILFORD AND AT JANESVILLE
From the time that Isadore and his wife lost their lives in the lake in 1856 no one else was drowned there until 1863. On the eighth of July Elbern G. Kelley, a boy eight years old, the son of John D. Kelley, and another boy who was older (J. Bristo Rice) went swimming at the sandbar in the lake east of Milford. The Kelley boy got into deep water, and being unable to swim, he began to drown. The other boy ran for help, but he had a long ways to go and assistance came too late. This is the first death that took place near Milford.
On the 24th of July Dr. John A. Slater died of congestive chills at his home about a mile northwest of Janesville. His death was the first one in the neighborhood of that place.
AN ATTEMPT TO RECRUIT FOR THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
In July a man named Elkins, perhaps John, came to the valley from Shasta City. After staying around at different places for a few days he went to Susanville. Shortly after his arrival at that place he went into the postoffice and found the postmaster and Cap. Hill there. He entered into a conversation
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with Roop, and after some talk, showed him a list of the names of southern men who lived in Shasta county and told him they were southern sympathizers. Roop knew several of these men, and in the light of what took place afterwards, it is probable that some of them had told Elkins that he was also a southern man and in favor of the South. Elkins asked for the names of the men in the valley who were friendly to the southern side, and finally asked the other two men if they would "take salt." They were used to having a man ask them to take a drink, but never before had they been asked to take salt and they didn't know what it meant. But the question had aroused their curi- osity, and having a desire to know what his business was, they told him they would. He said if they would come to his room that night and bring some of their friends, he would fix things up with them. He got very drunk that afternoon, and when Roop, Hill, Ward, and another man or two went to his room in the second story of the Brannan House, he was unable to talk to them and they went away no wiser than when they came. About two o'clock Miss Roop heard some one groaning, but probably she thought it was somebody who was drunk, and paid no particular attention to it. The next morning Elkins was found dead in the street with a broken neck. It was supposed that his whiskey gave out in the night and that he intended to go down stairs after more. He made a mistake and went onto the front porch and walked off that into the street. The papers found on him showed that he was a recruiting officer and that he had come into the valley to raise a company for the Southern Confederacy. He was buried in the cemetery at Susanville and Roop wrote to his friends in Shasta county, but they never moved his body. There was a great deal of excitement about the war and the Union men were sorry that he died before more was learned about his plans.
THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
Charles Barham says that in the summer of 1863 he and another man came from the Sacramento valley to Honey Lake to initiate men into the order of the "Knights of the Golden Circle." This was an order composed of southern sympathizers who lived in the northern states. They had lodges throughout the North and their object was to aid the cause of the Southern
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Confederacy. At a meeting held in the log house in Fort Janes- ville he initiated twenty-two men, and not long afterwards he initiated five more in Last Chance back of Milford. The man who came to the valley with him went on out into the Humboldt country to carry on the work there. In this part of the country the order must have "died a bornin'," for there is nothing to show that they ever did anything here.
THE UNION LEAGUE
This fall or the next spring one or more lodges of this order were organized in the valley. This was an order composed of Union men, and its object was to aid the government in putting down the rebellion and also to counteract the influence of the "Knights of the Golden Circle." Probably no more came of it here than from the other organization just mentioned, but it shows how the people of the land were divided against each other.
A CUTTING AFFRAY AT JANESVILLE Told by David B. Bankhead
One day this fall Davie Lowrie came to Janesville and got drunk, something that was a common occurrence with him. He was a large, dull-witted Scotchman, one of the pioneers of Cali- fornia, and was thought to be a harmless sort of an old fellow. While he was in this condition he sat down on the steps of the Holmes Hotel and Mrs. Holmes, who wished to get rid of him, motioned to three boys near by to try to get him away. These boys were David Bankhead and John Phillips, each about fifteen years old, and Malcom Bankhead aged ten. They threw some little clods of dirt at him and in a few minutes he got up and started across the street towards Blanchard's store. In the middle of the street he met Ed. Phillips, John's brother, who was a halfway vaquero and not very bright. He either spoke to Ed. or struck at him, and the latter threw him down and ran away laughing. John said "Look at my fool brother run away from that man," and then picked up a bar of iron and told Lowrie that if he said anything to him he would hit him on the head. Lowrie got up and went into the store and shortly after- wards the three boys went over there, too. As they stood in the door David Bankhead noticed that Lowrie, who was standing near the right-hand counter with his arms folded, had a knife
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in his hand. John went into the other side of the store for a match to light his pipe. Lowrie came past the other two boys, and as he did so David pushed his little brother back saying "He has got a knife." Lowrie walked up to John, and without saying anything, cut him across the upper part of the chest making a wound two and a half inches long. The boy struck at him two or three times before he found out that he was hurt. He then said that he was killed and called for his brother to take him home. It was a bad wound and the blood gushed out every time he breathed, but with the assistance of two men he walked to Bankhead's and there his wound was dressed. He seemed to get over the effects of it, but seven years afterwards he died in Surprise valley, and it was thought that his death was brought on by this injury. Lowrie afterwards told the narrator that for doing this he was arrested and taken to Quincy and locked up for five or six months. He lived in the valley more than twenty years after this, but never hurt anybody else. Twelve or fifteen years after this "Uncle Tim" Darcey slashed him with a knife cutting off the lower part of his ear and making an ugly gaslı almost the whole length of his jaw. Darcey gave him but little more warning than he had given the boy.
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CHAPTER X
1864. SETTLEMENT
S USANVILLE. During the spring and summer J. I. Steward built a two-story frame hotel on the northwest corner of Main and Gay streets. It was called the "Steward House" and was much the largest hotel that had ever been built in town. Mr. Steward ran it for two or three years, and it was used as a hotel until it was burned in the big fire of July 18, 1893, while owned by D. Knoch. The stable on the lot at the southeast corner of Lassen and Nevada streets was given by Governor Roop to the Masons, and early in the summer they moved it across the street to the northwest corner of Main and Lassen streets. The following fall and winter it was repaired a little and early the next year the Honey Lake Rangers used the lower story for an armory and the Masons occupied the upper story. In the fall of 1865 work was begun on it and continued until the next sum- mer. The building was re-covered and the upper story was fitted up in good shape. The ground floor was used for various purposes, but the second story was always used as a Masonic Hall until the fire of 1893, and perhaps a little longer. After that fire it was moved and put on the north side of Main street about midway between Lassen and Gay. It was burned in the fire of March 19, 1895. In the fall Jacob W. Smith began the erection of a brewery on the south side of Main street, the third lot east of Gay. This building was burned in the fire of March 17, 1865, before it was finished. He then put up another build- ing in the same place and in it followed the business of brewing until 1872. H. K. Cornell and William S. Hamilton built the first warehouse in the-place on the north side of the road just east of Piute creek. In it they stored flour which they hauled from Millville and sold here. Some time during the year D. Goldstein and William Greehn opened a store, Griffin and Wil- liams opened another one, and Philip H. Meyers and W. W. Clemmons started a blacksmith and wagon shop. In March Wil- liam Broekman and Jorgen Jensen opened a blacksmith and wagon shop on the southwest corner of Main and Lassen streets and continued in the business for almost two years. Shortly after this each one bought a ranch about two miles below Susan-
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1. Black smith Shop.
8- Arnold House - Roof only visible
9- Livery Stable & Feed Store
3. Photograph Gallery (Townsend's)
10- Blacksmith Shop 11- 'Cap" Hill's Tin Shop
4- Chinese Laundry Lower floor, during the war \ 12 - Livery Stable 5. First Masonic Hall (also armory of militia co.)
6. Robinson's Hotel (afterwards postoffice + land office)
7- Steward House in course of construction
patriotic UNION men of Honey-bake The ox teamingwas occasioned by the rush to the Hum bolt Mines
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9
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5
A
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THE UPPER, OR WESTERN, PART OF SUSANVILLE, CALIFORNIA Reproduction of old photograph taken in 1864
2- Ward House
Flagpole erected about 1861 by
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THE YEAR 1864
ville. Jensen spent the rest of his life there and Brockman still lives on his ranch. In the latter 60's Meyers bought a place a mile south of town on which he lived about fifteen years. The Susanville public school was taught this fall by W. H. Van Alstine.
The public school at Richmond was taught this fall by Miss D. K. (Kitty) Funk. School was held in the building put up by Shaffer for a warehouse.
Toadtown. The first school in the Susan River District was taught this fall by Mrs. Caroline A. Johnston, the wife of David Johnston. A few months later on the school was taught by E. W. Pratt.
Janesville. In the spring, possibly the previous winter, L. N. Breed bought Dave Blanchard's store and stock of goods. During the following summer he built a one-story building right across the street from it, and here he kept a store for the sale of general merchandise until 1873. He then put up a two-story building on the same site. He sold goods in the lower story of this and the second story was used for a lodge room by the Masons and the Odd Fellows until 1911 when each of these orders built a two-story hall in the town. Breed was the mer- chant of Janesville for seventeen or eighteen years. It is impos- sible to tell positively who taught school this fall. Some think it was taught in the Fort by A. M. Vaughan.
In February Thomas H. Epley and Family returned to the valley and bought the place on the lake originally taken up by Isadore. The Lake District built a schoolhouse on the south side of the road and on the eastern slope of a little hill about four and a half miles southeast of Janesville. William A. Hatcher taught the public school there in the fall.
Milford. W. (Bogue) Adams built a saloon on the west side of the road running up to the gristmill and just below the rock pile. In the fall E. T. (Bert) Fairchilds put up a two-story frame hotel just above and adjoining the saloon. These were the first establishments of the kind in the place. Fred A. Wash- burn filed on 160 acres of land covering the Milford townsite, and all the titles to the lots in that place come from him. This summer the crickets went across the upper part of the valley again.
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Long Valley. Andrew W. Dinwiddie and Family went onto the place taken by Frank Williams the previous year, probably bought it. Ambrose and Noah Robinson were killed when the steamboat Washoe blew up on the Sacramento river. This year, or shortly afterwards, Andrew J. Wilkerson came into the valley and rented the Willow Ranch, and Anton Rager located a place above that ranch. Robert M. Dooley took up a ranch about two miles south of the Willow Ranch. J. P. McKissick came into Long valley this fall and Edwin Ferris went to the Summit close to the Lassen county line.
Willow Creek. This spring Hurlbut and Knudson returned to their ranch and commenced to improve it. Knudson lived there the rest of his life. A. L. Tunison had been going back and forth between Honey Lake and Willow Creek since 1860, but had settled on no land in the latter place. This spring he and William H. Hall made a location just below Hurlbut and Knudson. In the fall Hall sold his part of the claim to Tunison who lived there for many years. David Hursher and Brother brought in cattle from Yolo county in charge of Henry Didlot and kept them there until the next year. Mr. Barnes of Yolo county brought in quite a large band of horses in charge of Frank Stetson. Barnes and Hursher built a joint cabin on the south side of the valley on the lower end of the Tunison ranch. That fall Barnes moved his horses back to the Sacramento valley. During the summer and fall a good many people went into the valley, and the following winter there was quite a settlement in and around Leesburg. Eli W. Harris, Mrs. Jennie Harrison's stepfather, and Family and his partner, James Scott, crossed the plains this year and spent the winter at Leesburg. Griffith G. Miller and Wife, Jacob C. Miller, his brother, a man named Jordan and Family and his partner, Henry Wright, also lived there. Thomas W. Pickard and Wife, and perhaps Henry Davis, were on the old Demming place, and James Haley and Wife, and part of the time their sons, Nelson and James, were on a place joining Pickard on the east. Robert Gowanlock and Richard Quilty lived somewhere on the creek in the timber above Leesburg, and James Mariot Parker had a ranch on the south side of the creek about two miles below there. Thomas Pearson lived in a little valley that lies south of the lower end of Willow Creek valley.
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Mt. Meadows. John H. Seagraves, who had bought an interest in the Long ranch, lived there this year.
Surprise Valley. There was a large emigration into the valley this year and a great deal of stock was taken there. Because of the lack of rain during the previous winter stock was dying off in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, and the owners of it would allow any one to take as many cattle as he pleased and give him half of what he could save. A great deal of the stock driven into the valley this year was taken in that way. Thomas Price of Butte City, California, says that late in the fall Thomas Bare built a cabin in the lower end of the valley on what was then called Wood creek. This was the first building erected in the part of Surprise valley that is in Lassen county. W. H. McCormick of Eagleville, California, says that a little later, perhaps the next year, two men who had come into the valley this year, John Bordwell and -Hill, settled in that part of the valley. Their claims went into the Bare ranch which was afterwards bought by the Gerlach Land and Stock Company. The first soldiers stationed in Surprise valley went in there this summer.
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